


Lost in Green

by Sternenstaub



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Dementors, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Minor Character Death, Modern Character in Thedas, Modern Girl in Thedas, Slavery, Slow To Update, Tevinter Imperium, just a nickname, not quite
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-23
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-10-09 18:11:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10418148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sternenstaub/pseuds/Sternenstaub
Summary: Even if you are not quite a mage, Thedas is not a nice place for you. And for a modern girl getting captured by slavers even less.





	1. Chapter 1

“Eleonore! Wake up!“, a burly man was shaking me awake quite violently. “Get up! We have to hurry, they are near!“ Out of reflex and instinct I was following his orders. He was packing his things quite rapidly, urging me to move all the time.

But what was going on here, where was I? Surrounded by forest and in front of me a fireplace, I hadn’t been camping yesterday. 

The man took my arm “Eleonore! Hurry up! They are getting closer.” My adrenaline spiked. We were chased. I did not know by whom or what, but my instincts told me to run, the hair on my neck was standing up by small rustles in the wind, survival instincts were kicking in with all they had.

We ran. Straight through the woods, branches gripping at my clothes, tearing them apart, drawing blood and trying to stop me. Darkness surrounded us, the moon hid behind the trees. Suddenly I heard shouting and dogs.   
Faster! Faster! But they were getting closer.

“We are close, the dogs can smell them! Let´s make a last good catch today!” That was way too loud, we couldn´t outrun them. My lungs felt like bursting, the burly man was behind me the whole time. I was sure he was a lot fitter than me, his legs were longer but he was protecting my back while we were running, urging me on between breathless gasps for air.

Branches gave away at my left side and the biggest dog I had ever seen was baring it´s teeth at me. Behind it a heavily breathing man looked at me with anticipation and contempt. “Seems like our info was false, this is no mage, just a girl, barely a woman but certainly not ugly, she will still make a decent slave for a lonely man.” he shouted to his comrades. His voice produced goose bumps all over my body. More rustling was to be heard, around 6 guys were surrounding us now. “Not Eleonore, not my baby.” The big guy behind me muttered all the time. But we were outnumbered, there was no way to run and fighting would be suicide. 

A small part of me wondered what the heck he was talking about. Mages? And why were we even chased? But the primal part of me was in fight or flight mode, survival it´s only goal. And there was no way to go.

I stormed at the guy in front of me, hoping to get behind him and further into the woods by mere luck and surprise. I did not have any of that, “Don´t kill her!”, I don´t know if the burly guy or our 6 attackers were the ones shouting. I did not see the man at my back trying to protect me, getting between me and at least 3 other guys. I only noticed a sudden heavy impact at my side, big teeth in my arm and something heavy hitting my head, then the world became dark. Maybe this would make sense once I woke up.

 

“Look, that´s her, that´s the Dementor, Nora something.”   
“What, that girl? No way!”   
“No, believe me, she is the bringer of sadness. Everyone who touches her has felt depressed and lost so far. Some say her mother killed herself after being too much near her.”   
“No way, now you are making things up!”   
“Well, go try talking to her, but keep some cute cat vids ready on your phone for when you come back.”

A cute looking girl was approaching me. She had brightly coloured hair and was shouting freshmen with every piece of cloth on her. Bright, pink and blue and stickers of every kind on her backpack. “Save the whales.” “Vote for peace.” And so on, some were metal bands, others just random buttons with cute pictures. 

She approached me with a shy smile. “Hi, I’m Tracy.” She reached her slightly shaking hand towards me. As if I didn´t hear them whisper. I was not deaf nor dumb and she certainly wasn´t the first one to approach me in a dare. 

The first time someone approached me in a dare like some kind of haunted house it offended me greatly. I was not some plaything, not a story to tell your friends! The second time it still made me mad, the fifth time made me sad but by now I did not feel anything any longer when freshman approached me. The first ones I tried not to touch, not to hurt, to be nice to them, now I did not care any longer. They wanted suspense and excitement? I could give them that. 

Slowly, very slowly I took off my tight-fitting gloves, on after the other, keeping eye contact all the time with a small smirk on my lips. I did know how to make a show out of myself. If you can´t change a bad thing, revel in it. 

I stretched my hand towards her almost near enough for a handshake, almost close enough to touch her bare skin with mine but making her do the last move, never leaving her eyes. The fright and anticipation and a small dose of disbelief was showing. Nobody could say I hurt her on purpose like this. It was her move now.

She waited a confused moment, slightly frightened but still unbelieving until she grabbed my hand in a swift gesture… and then stopped moving altogether, her hand shook, her eyes were blown wide and within seconds she was crying. She looked like every single happy thought had just left her and she was trying to fill the sudden void with tears. My heart broke a tiny bit for her but I buried this feeling deep-down.

She threw my hand away and rushed back to her friends.   
“I told you so.” One laughed.   
I was sure he had never touched me. People never forgot.  
I put my gloves on again, got up and walked home. I would not cry here.

 

The ground was rumbling, I woke up to shouts and screams. “Stupid knife ear! Strop struggling!” someone shouted and I heard a loud slap accompanied by a pained cry. Someone was shoved besides me and groaned in pain.

I opened my eyes slowly and realized I was inside a wooden cage. 3 women were besides me, one of them crying, all clearly frightened and malnourished. I tried to stand up but the cage did not allow such freedom. I checked my clothes and hands, afraid to see something vital missing and saw with a relieved breath my gloves still covering my hands, even if the rest of my clothes was torn at quite unfortunate places. I was showing an awful lot of thigh and some blood from my bite wound had soaked most of my left arm.

What happened, where was I? What was going on here? Why had that guy called me Eleonore? And Knife-Ear? That was a dragon age term! Hadn’t he also talked about mages? 

Sitting up slowly in the very small cage, careful not to touch anyone with my bare skin, I asked in a whisper, “What happened, where are we?” One of the woman turned towards me, her face was adorned by an intricate tattoo and full of contempt. “Doesn´t the poor little shem even recognize tevinter slavers if she sees some?” she spat at me. I recoiled like she had hit me. 

Her face, her ears, her bigger than normal eyes, calling me shem, tevinter! This could not be true, I could not be in dragon age! But my head hurt too much, my arm was still bleeding from the dog, no, mabari bite, my brain corrected, this was no dreams, dreams did not hurt like this! What the friggging heck had happened to me?!

It was a good thing I did not go into a full-blown panic, one of the guys who had chased us had noticed me. “Awake already, sleeping beauty? I´m sure your hands are awfully soft under those gloves, I would just love to put them to good use in camp. You might even get something out of it.” he leered at me. His face was dirty, his clothes torn and his eyes shined with substances unknown to me but most likely nothing that should legally be consumed. 

“Don´t touch her, you dirty piece of mabari dung!” the burly guy shouted in his cage at the other end of the camp. I hadn´t noticed him until now. Looking into his enraged face I suddenly remembered some snippets. 

Him holding me in his arms, giving me my first gloves, the smallest ones he could craft for a child.   
Him telling me never to touch people or glowing things without my gloves on, explaining the story of mages and templars and how they might catch me and throw me into a circle or worse if they ever thought I was a mage. 

Mr. Drug addict was turning around and stomping menacingly towards the small cage, shouting at my …Father? He was in a much smaller than we were and alone. He must have been the only male they had captured. “Hold your tongue! Or lose it!” he yelled, I saw his spit flying from this far away. 

“Stop it Jim, we still need information from him.” One of his comrades stepped between them and only then I realized Mr. Drug addict, Jim, had been holding a small knife and was about to stab the burly man I could scarcely remember.

The other man stood now in front of the cage as well. “We were told you were hiding an apostate and it´s not the girl you were travelling with. I know a mage if I see one, where is he?”  
“Dead, buried him a few days ago.”   
“Well, too bad, doesn’t seem like we will get our reward from the templars, well, might as well sell you with the other cargo.” He laughed cruelly. Normally I would have scoffed at a villainous laugh but in this very moment it seemed quite dooming to be captured by a guy laughing villainously. 

He must be a rogue templar or how else would he be able to tell mages apart from other people?  
My father raged in his cage but the wood did not give and the men were ignoring him soon. 

The night got darker, the men were lying down in tents, we were not given food or water and my arm throbbed something awful. The next day was much the same. We were not left out of the cages. Jim seemed to have lost his interest in me, the other women were ignoring me and we were given one meal a day, hard bread and some water. They did not want their cargo to die. 

The next dawn, just before the sun went up and gave the first light, I heard something scuffle around our cage. Swift movements and a tuft of white hair could be seen until it vanished again into the night. Something clinked and the guy on guard duty suddenly fell into a heap. The other men were still sleeping but one of the mabari seemed to notice something was wrong and started. With loud barking, he attacked a shadow and suddenly the camp lit up in a blue light. It almost looked like the attacker was phasing through the big dog, but that couldn´t be, could it? Still it died with a yelp. 

But three others were already there and the remaining 5 men were now awake as well. The shadow fought, lightning up from time to time, always followed by a yelp and wet gurgle but it seemed like he was mostly getting the dogs. The men were wounded but still encircling him and getting closer. The shadow did not light up quite so often any longer and with a last loud clank the light vanished entirely. 

“Don´t kill him! I have heard of him, he is worth a fortune!” one of the men yelled. The fight had took just a short time but now the sun was giving us her first light and I saw the men holding a guy between them. He had white hair, splattered with red blood and seemed unconscious and full of bite wounds. I pitied him, those hurt like hell, my arm was testament to that.   
“Throw him into the cage with the other male.” The least injured guy told the rest.

Once the sun was set fully I took a closer look at the new arrival, we had not yet started our daily travel since the slavers were still tending their wounds. Too bad not more of them died.  
He seemed strangely familiar. Between his white hair pointed ears stood out and his face and arms seemed to be covered in markings. Oh no! It can´t be!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am not dead and this story is not dead!  
> Exam time is over and I can start concentrating more on writing again.  
> And crocheting. If anyone needs a soothing and meditative hobby, try crocheting.

Morning had come but my situation had stayed the same. The 3 women at my side were more terrified than ever. They whispered stories and prayers so silently I could barely hear them talk at all. My knees hurt, I had not been able to move more than a few centimetres for 2 nights now. My arm was not bleeding any longer but I felt it beating in the steady rhythm of my pulse. In the dawning sunlight, I could make out the other cage. It had been small with just one occupant, now with two it was almost bursting. The burly guy, my father, I supposed, was holding the white-haired head in his arms.

\-- POV Change --  
His head throbbed awfully, but it was nothing he had never experienced. Big hands were holding him and he instantly fell into a panic. He had fought, he had lost. How could that have happened? And now someone unknown was holding him!  
He jumped up and knocked the unknown person away. A big man was thrown into the wooden wall behind him.  
They were both inside a cage. At least he had not been in the hands of his captor. One of his hands shot forward and took hold of the other man’s windpipe. If he had looked even slightly tevinter it would have been his heart. 

“What happened?” he asked, even though he knew the answer, his memory was coming back slowly. The slavers had killed a lot of elves and taken the others away, they had raided many campsites and he had tried to free them, to kill all these tevinter bastards in their sleep but he had not counted on those maker damned mabaris. How could so intelligent dogs bond with people like that?

The man in his hand was slowly turning blue and clearly had not enough air to answer him. He let him fall onto the small floor. The burly man coughed and hacked until he could breath again. Fenris almost regretted attacking him but he had bigger problems than his morals right now.  
He had been captured and would be brought back to tevinter if he could not flee fast enough. The border was near, it had taken him too long to find the small caravan.

And he could not flee in broad daylight. The slavers and mabari would find him and his bite wounds were a good reminder, that he was not invincible. While he might have taken the chances alone, he would not leave those poor captured elven women here. They did not deserve the fate that awaited them.

For a moment he deliberated what Hawke would have done, but mocking the guys into an attack and then storming head on into the fight did not sound like a good idea with charges to protect, who had no weapons and were most likely too weak to walk on their own.  
He sat down and stared at the man he had almost killed. They could both barely sit on the floor without their arms and knees touching.  
“How long have you been here? Can you tell me something about their daily routine? Have you ever seen a way to escape?”

The man looked at him with hopeless eyes. “Do you really think you can escape? We can´t even leave this cage!”  
“I do know how to escape this cage, I am more concerned about the guards and their stupid dogs.”

The man looked not quite as lost any longer. “Can you really get out of here?”  
Fenris nodded with as much confidence as he had. “I can get out and I can fight but I need to escape at the best possible time. When are the guards changing at night?”

The man thought for a moment, “Yesterday we travelled until they could not see the path any longer. Then they started making camp. While they were building the fire and erecting tents I only saw one guard and a few dogs roaming around. Most were exhausted or hunting for dinner.”

Fenris nodded, he had suspected as much. He would be stuck here until sunset. The slavers would be able to recover from their battle wounds and they would pass the Tevinter border. Why could they not have started hunting in Ferelden? In the free marches you only had to travel north-east long enough until you reached the imperial highway. No ships, no suspicious guards, no one to stop some slavers cargo before it officially lost all rights to their life. They were cattle and once they crossed the border it would be almost impossible for an elf to travel alone. For one as well known and easily recognizable as him even more. But he would flee or die trying. Never again. 

Hawke had shown him friendship and a life worthy to life. He had found himself in Kirkwall and would not loose that again.  
“Once it gets dark we will break out. Though it is likely some of us will be taken down in the process, we have to try.”  
The man suddenly looked determined, his intensitiy was almost frightening. “Can you save my little girl? They took Eleonore. They are going to sell her to a whorehouse! Save my little girl and I am going to distract them long enough for you to flee!”  
Fenris was looking in the eyes of a man who knew his certain death and was still freely going.  
He nodded. One sacrifice was better than many more.

“Let´s wait until night.” They sat down as comfortably as possible. Fenris was trying to bandage his wounds with some of his clothes and was surprised to hear a ripping sound. The man was making bandages and offering them up to him. With a sad smile, he asked for consent to bandage his wounds. 

“I did this so many times for Eleonore. You wouldn´t believe in how much trouble one small girl can get. Once she fell down a tree and came home with her head bloodied all over, almost gave me a heart attack, she did. Another time she had found a small fox and was insistent on carrying it home, not caring that it was biting and scratching her arms all up, even through her clothes. Not quite as bad as you look, lad, but it´s all the same, in the end, isn´t it? She was so sad when she had to let it go again.”  
The man talked in a soothing voice and Fenris almost could relax for a moment. He did barely notice the bandages getting fastened around his arm.  
Hearing the man talk, he missed his mother even though he could not remember. Having a parent must have been nice, even when living in poverty.

“There lad, all done. Will be as good a new in a few days.” He smiled at him. His clothes were now even more tattered and barely covered his torso. Following his eyes he winked, “Don´t worry I won´t need them any longer.” That shut up every thought Fenris might have uttered. He was sitting with a man willing to die for his family.

The caravan started moving soon after. The slavers grumbled about their delay but were euphoric about their big catch.  
They had been mad not to have found a mage. Someone had told them a circle mage was traveling to tevinter and most magisters paid a hefty sum for a trained mage in their possession, no matter if human or elven. They were highly priced and looked after for entertainment purposes. After all, only the best and strongest magisters could hope to have a trained mage obeying their every whim and call. 

But now they had something even better. The famous escaped tevinter slave with a fortune of lyrium in his veins. Some magister would pay even more for him than for a trained mage and if they did not find a buyer, they would just bleed him dry and sell his blood. They heard blood mages were experimenting with lyrium and blood mixtures and no one’s would be better quality.

The captives were silent, not muttering a word, not wanting to draw attention and the day dragged on.  
The sun was at her highest, slowly going down and Fenris had not moved an inch.  
The sun started setting and the guys leering at the girls in the other cage. Promising them some “fun” for the night after such a rough start into the day. Fenris could hear them crying. All the elven women did at least. The lone human girl was looking stoically into the void, not seeing her captors. She must have been in shock. 

The caravans slowed down and the slavers started gathering wood and made their camp.  
“It´s time.” Fenris looked at the guy besides him, the father willing to die for their sakes. “Take care of my baby.” He only nodded once.

Fenris carvings lit up accompanied by the well-known pain he always had to endure when he fought. He phased through the wooden door, splintering it open and ran towards the other cage.  
He sprinted across the camp, ignoring the shouting vints. He heard a roar and a dog’s yelp but could not turn around. Time was essential.  
Tearing the other cage apart he took the first woman´s hand he could reach and pulled her out, the others were scrambling after her. “Run!”

He had grabbed Eleonore arm and suddenly his carving stopped hurting, he stopped glowing and felt whole for the first time since forever.  
The girl in front of him was looking at him with shocked eyes, her hair was suddenly standing up at all sides, electrical charging was surrounding them and her eyes slowly started glowing in an unsettling blue. Even if Fenris had wanted to, he would not have been able to pull away. The girl was surrounded by a blue aura and the floor was sizzling. The vints were screaming, Fenris felt like he was in the middle of a thunderstorm, lightning was caressing him, kissing his skin and protecting them from harm.

When the glowing stopped, nobody but the both of them was moving any longer. Not the vints, not the elven women, not her father. The women in the wooden cart groaned but the slavers were quite clearly dead, struck by lightning. 

Fenris could not believe his eyes, could not believe what he felt. She was a mage! And he had not felt it! Her magic had not hurt him in the slightest, his markings were feeling rather pleasant actually. How could he feel so good while touching a mage who had just killed several guys?

Eleonore seemed to regain her senses before anyone else. She looked around and pulled his arm along. “We have to go!” And they ran into the woods.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, please point out any grammmar mistakes to me. And I am always thankful for people helping me flesh out tevinter life in a small-ish city.

**Author's Note:**

> Anyone up for giving me Tevinter society and etiquette lessons? Because we will eventually end up there and the wiki is quite sparse with the Information I need.
> 
> Oh, and I don´t have a beta and am not a native speaker. If you find mistakes, please point them out to me.


End file.
